Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

http://www.mishalov.net/japan1168part3/japan1168part3.html#j...


It should be on this gallery page. Find Yokohama dock about 10 down on the left. The one with the white boat in the foreground.

Thanks Steffi you are great! here you will see what I believe to be my old apartment.!! I lived on the ground floor and there was an american with a japanese wife who lived above. They were really sweet people. From our front door we could walk over the bridge [where the photo was taken from] to Motomachi. The 100 steps were directly ahead. behind the building was the chinatown section of Yokohama where, an unescorted gentleman would be offered butterflys. The barges would get active at very first light and there would be much yelling. I believe the familys lived on the barges but not certain of that.As you can see from the photo the air was almost always smoggy. The photo reflects that. The writing is on the top of the building and is obscured in part by the telephone pole. I hope your friend can make out at least some of what it says. I believe Dr Po was a cardiac doctor so the writing may reflect that. I am thrilled to share this with you-all. This is a real kick for me. I appreciate the indulgence.

Thanks Steffi you are great! here you will see what I believe to be my old apartment.!! I lived on the ground floor and there was an american with a japanese wife who lived above. They were really sweet people. From our front door we could walk over the bridge [where the photo was taken from] to Motomachi. The 100 steps were directly ahead. behind the building was the chinatown section of Yokohama where, an unescorted gentleman would be offered butterflys. The barges would get active at very first light and there would be much yelling. I believe the familys lived on the barges but not certain of that.As you can see from the photo the air was almost always smoggy. The photo reflects that. The writing is on the top of the building and is obscured in part by the telephone pole. I hope your friend can make out at least some of what it says. I believe Dr Po was a cardiac doctor so the writing may reflect that. I am thrilled to share this with you-all. This is a real kick for me. I appreciate the indulgence.

Okay, is this the picture?

http://www.mishalov.net/japan1168part3/pictures/japan1168-32...

I will send this to my friend and ask if she sees anything. But first, is the writing you mean on the lamp post in front or the building itself? Also, are we talking about the darker or the lighter building?

Okay - never mind my qustions. I just found the writing you're talking about. It's right to left, on top of the dark-gray building. Is that right?

Hi Steffi you have found the right picture. It is the darker building, the one on the right. The wording is not on the telephone pole but on the top of the building. part of it is obscured by a telephone pole. The rest are pretty hard to make out. Tonight I called my ex wife, who we effectionately called Ozzie. I hope she jumps in on all this as she has much to share. Anyway, she confirms that the picture is the place that was our first little home. So while your friend in Kyoto is most welcome to see what she can read, it seems for confirmation reasonds, it may be somewhat moot. Please ask her anyway. I would like to know. I find it amazing that this photo exists, as the buildind is now gone and replaced with a highway. In a small private way, that all of you will never know and I reserve to myself, finding this completes a circle that I didn't thing would ever be completed. Not just memories, but transitional moments that mean a lot to me. I am thankful that you are with me here on this albeit that I really don't know you all very well... prehaps...
Peter Saunders.

Well, I have sent off an email to Michiko. Let's see if she can see anything. It doesn't look very clear to me, but maybe she can make it out. We'll hope.
I know what you mean in a general way, Peter, and share your exhilaration. I can't quite explain to people why this communication on line is so exciting and seems so important. I guess we are all trying to connect with some part of ourselves that is intimately related to the places we left behind in Japan and the experiences we each had there. It's trying to understand and remember. We were mostly there for different reasons so we're probably all looking for different things - wartime refugee in my case, Army brat in Eric's, soldiering in Wally's, and military work in your case. I don't know when or why Lori was in Japan, or even if she's still there - I may have not seen her initial posts here. But there's no doubt that this is interesting and important. And it's all thanks to this amazing new internet invention - none of this would be happening otherwise!

I think you have identified the reason I am not expecting to see my old Yokohama when I get back, if I can make it, financially. The American footprint is largely gone. Everything the US tried to do to rebuild Japan has turned out to be a success, creating a whole new country far different than it was.
Folks who were there way back then can't recognize what we set in motion.
Honey buckets and three wheeled trucks, among other things, are a thing of the distant past.

Thank you Steffi, we'll see what she can read. Sorry for my typos its the genius in me don't-you-know. Certainly the reforms that went into place helped re-build Japan were important but I can't overlook the strong work ethic of the Japanese people. When I was working at the procurement agency for a little while they were re-plastering the ceiling. There was a very old man that was on a scaffolding and plastered all day long over his head and didn't seem to spill a spadeful. Man. Civilization began argueably in the middle east and look where they are now. So I give a world of credit to the Japanese people and their ability to work their buns off and make progress. If super highways are progress. Steffi, Lori was there in the 80's I believe and now is a teacher in Washington state. At the Enlisted mans club they had a country western band, called the Honey-bucketeers. Cute hun? Bless their hearts..they were terrible, like my spelling. Saw a write up of Dr. Atomic, I bet its pretty good. Thanks all.

Peter is mostly right: I was a Navy dependant and lived in Negishi Heights Navy Housing from April of 1980 thru March of 1982. I was Navy Family Ombudsman for the squadron my husband was in (aboard USS Midway) during the first year of his tour of duty. I also did LOTS of exploring and experiencing the Japanese culture; was also involved in the Protestant Church Congregation at the Chapel of the Rising Sun there in the Negishi Hts. military housing area (sang with the choir and played flute). I also went to the Philippines for a month (May of 1981) and stayed with friends of ours that were stationed at Subic Bay with the Navy. My last week or so there, the Midway was in port, so spent those days with my husband, then we flew Navy Transport from NAS Cubi Point, PI to NAF Atsugi, Japan and took the train then a Yokohama city bus a relatively short distance to our back door. I also went to Pusan, Korea in November of 1981 when the Midway was there; so my husband and I got to experience a bit of Korean culture, also.

We returned to Japan for about 9 months Fall/Winter/Spring of 1985-86. We rented a semi-Western style house in the outskirts of Yokohama, close to Yokohama Natural Zoo. We returned to the States more than 2 years before we were initially supposed to because of the US Congress's budget cutbacks in the Graham/Rudman Budget Cutback Bill. I don't remember all it affected, but it affected the military in a big way.

A bit of a correction about being a teacher. I am actually a substitute for the Educational Aides in our school district, working with all ages and abilities: Preschool thru high school, regular curriculum, special education and special needs (physically and/or mentally handicapped). Wow! Didn't mean to "toot my own horn" but it kinda turned into that. Hope I don't sound conceited. I am actually grateful for what God has allowed me to experience and for all the people who have touched my life in so many wonderful ways.

What do you think of my old place? Street scenes seem familiar? Was right around the corner from the Bund Hotel. Gotcha ! And thanks Lori, nice to know you better. Ever go to the Bund Hotel?...never mind.
Todays Haiku:
Memories behind
all well and fine
will it snow in Kingston?

Nope! No Bund.


And which Kingston are you addressing in the haiku? There are several. Offhand: Jamaica and we even have one in Washington. I take it you are talking about one close to where you live. ;)

Kingston New Hampshire today is rainy and cold, but no snow. Burrr

Which building did you live in? Is it the dark gray building behind the white pickup truck?

Yes, it was the dark grey building the one on the left.

Sorry Wally its the one on the right.. don't say it.. I don't even know right from left.

Nice, but not pretentious. Is that the Bund Hotel in the background--the multi-storied gray building? The canal seems familiar, I think I threw up in it once.

I don't think the large building in the background was the Bund Hotel. I really don't remember the building much at all. But it looks like a factory. I thought the Bund Hotel was on the waterfront near Yamashita Park. I wouldn't know.. I came home one day and the neighbors were abuzz. Seems like a sick man cane to what he thought was the old clinic and passed out[ or died] on the steps. The Japanese Police in their effeciency quickly took him away. Maybe he had been attacked or was drunk. Hey maybe that was you Wally Thanks for improving the neighborhood. The canal in the picture looks pretty polluted. As I recall there was one hot day that I thought I would go for a swim. Quickly revised that, what with the diesel oil and other flotsam about. I also had one episode [ that I can remember] got pretty stinky at the Peanuts club with the help of several Australian sailors and some prohibited materials. Not really proud of it but those were pretty wild days.. I'm telling you?!

Okay, so the Bund would be in the other direction, as it was right down the boulevard from the Zebra Club. Talk about wild times. I would get off work, go to the Kishine NCO club for happy hour. Take a taxi to Hakuraku, shave and splash my face with Jade East cologne, get dressed in my new cashmere blend jacket from Elite Hong Kong Tailors, with a white turtleneck shirt. Take the train down to Sakuraki-cho (sp?), walk over to the Zebra Club, meet a beautiful young Japanese chick at the front door, buy her dinner and drinks, then we would take a cab to the Peanut Club, sit up in the balcony and listen to Voltage, dance some, go to the Tasagara or another bar, then I would take her home, stop by the Koran for a nightcap, and get home just in time to go to work. I am proud of the fact that I only went to work drunk one time in the nineteen months I was in Japan!

Well, you're just young once, as we all are discovering by now. Peter, we finally heard from Michiko regarding the writing - here's what she says in her special English - "Well, we saw you picture to be sent. But unfortunately it is very hard to read. We will try to find what is written in several ways. So give us more time." She is a dependable person so we'll see what happens - perhaps she's planning on enlarging the picture, or darkening it, or doing a closeup, or something of the sort to make it easier to read. I hope that it's at least Japanese and not Chinese, as you had thought.